Dr Noy revealed that the former statesman appeared to have “minimal consciousness” during his years in a coma.

He said: “His heart weakened and he peacefully departed from his family who were always at his side with love and support.”

Israel paid tribute to the former leader who was intent on securing land for the Israeli people throughout his life.

Smiles: Ariel Sharon with Whitney Houston in 2003 (Image: Reuters)

Strategic affairs minister Yuval Steinitz said: “The nation of Israel has today lost a dear man, a great leader and a bold warrior.”

However, in Gaza, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zurhdi: “We have become more confident in victory with the departure of this tyrant.

“Our people today feel extreme happiness at the death and departure of this criminal whose hands were smeared with the blood of our people and the blood of our leaders here and in exile.”

Khalil Al Hayya, a Hamas leader, added: “We will remember Ariel Sharon as the man who killed, destroyed and caused suffering for several Palestinian generations.

“After eight years, he is going the same direction as other tyrants and criminals whose hands were covered with Palestinian blood.”

ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON AT A FAREWELL CELEBRATION OF A MEMEBER OF HIS STAFF, JERLUSALEM, ISRAEL - 9 MAY 2004

After joining the Jewish paramilitary group Haganah in his teens, Ariel Sharon became an infantry leader in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) aged 20.

He fought in the 1948 Israeli War of Independence and in the 1967 Six Day War.

His military campaigns were marked by the harsh occupation of Palestinian lands and Israeli expansion.

Sharon quit the army in 1973 but was recalled that year for the Yom Kippur War, and was also elected to the Knesset, Israel’s legislature.

Sharon was instrumental in the withdrawal of Israeli troops and Jewish settlers from the Gaza strip in 2005, but was still a divisive figure within the country, and was hated by Palestinians.

Ariel Sharon in Washington D.C., America - 2001

After becoming a commander in the army in 1948, he went on to hold many of the top offices of state.

He survived a fierce debate over his role in refugee camp massacres during the 1982 Lebanon war to be elected prime minister in 2001.

Some diplomats believe that had he not fallen ill at the height of his power, he would have secured peace with the Palestinians after overcoming domestic critics to force through the withdrawal from Gaza in 2005.

But critics said the unilateralism he favoured helped discredit diplomacy and embolden ideological hardliners.

Ariel Sharon tease

As prime minister, he presided over some of the most turbulent times in Israeli-Palestinian history, a Palestinian uprising that erupted in 2000 and an Israeli military crackdown after peace talks collapsed.

As Israel’s leader, he also besieged his arch-nemesis Yasser Arafat with tanks after suicide bombers flooded Israel from the occupied West Bank.

There was no immediate comment on the death from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, with whom Sharon’s Likud party successor, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has been holding U.S.-sponsored peace talks.